Herbert W Armstrong

   Now, the judgment hall in which he was tried initially was before the religious tribunal. That is, he was being tried before the Sanhedrin, or a portion — certainly a portion, maybe not the greater Sanhedrin because it was not required that it would be the entire Sanhedrin, but a representative Sanhedrin as I would understand it.

   But Jesus earlier had given his disciples a warning of the events which were coming. He had told his disciples that he was going away. He had told them what to expect; they didn't understand parentally. And again and again, there was an exchange, and as you know, Peter apparently thought that he could save Christ and wouldn't allow these things to happen. And Christ had rebuked him.

   But not only did Jesus give a warning to his disciples and prepare them, he also gave the enemy — that is, the scribes and the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the rulers — a sign or a warning. And the sign and the warning that he gave, I think, was in order to point to the contrast or point up the contrast between the counterfeit and the genuine article.

   In Matthew chapter 12 verse 39 (Matthew 12:38-39), Jesus said, after being queried — we can start in verse 38 to get the paragraph break: "Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered saying, 'Master, we would see a sign from you.'"

   Now, of course, they had seen sign after sign after sign, as was pointed out earlier. Many signs were given to them. Many miraculous events occurred, starting with the event at Cana and the wedding in Cana where Jesus turned water into wine — a rather momentous sign. Lots of men can turn wine into water, but nobody has been able to turn water into wine other than Christ, to my knowledge.

   But he answered and said, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. Verse 40: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's or the fish's belly" — it should be not whale necessarily but a great fish — "so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and behold, a greater than Jonas is here."

   "The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, it walks through dry places, seeking rest and finds none. Then he returns, he saith, 'I will return into my house from whence I came out'" — that is, this unclean spirit. "And when he has come, he finds it empty, swept, and garnished. Then he goes, takes with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation."

   Now, isn't that interesting? Why did Jesus use the sign of Jonas first of all — the three days and three nights in the belly of the fish or the whale, if you please, prefer that? And then he speaks of unclean spirits. Why? Why in the sign of Jonas and why did then Jesus follow by speaking of an unclean spirit gone out of a man?

   Perhaps we need to go back and just take note of in the book of Jonah of what happened there. And a little bit of background is about all we need because you know the story of Jonah and the whale. And I'm not going to take the time to read through that all. If you can — if you wish — in the Companion Bible on the notes of the structure and the background for the book, Bullinger affirms: "The clue to the date is given in chapter one verse one, which is by comparison with, by comparing that with II Kings 14:25, falls within the time of Jeroboam II and the earlier years of Azai, therefore about 690 B.C."

   So this is after 721 or thereabouts when Israel had been taken — when Samaria had fallen. And Israel was in the process of deportation, probably had been deported by 710 or thereabouts. So if this is about 690 then Israel, the Northern kingdom, is in captivity already to Assyria and Judah was being assaulted by the Assyrian kings and they were having the obvious concern of being overrun by the king of Assyria.

   But then Bullinger says that there was about an 18-year period of silence in Syrian history in this period of time — that is, in the days of Jonah from about seven hundred six ninety, for about an 18-year period of silence. Something happened in Assyria during that period of time which the Assyrians didn't want to talk about for some reason — some strange reason — and what that reason is perhaps has to be conjectured. Only we may not have an answer.

   Now, in the book "History Begins at Sumer" by Noah Kramer — Kramer is a scholar of great note in the area of Assyriology or Sumerologists that he has spent a lifetime in studying the writings of Ancient Sumer and Assyria, of deciphering and then of bringing together tablets which have been translated by other scholars and comparing them and putting them together. Because in excavating the ancient sites of Nineveh and Ore, Babylonia and other sites, Akkad, Urach and so on, those tablets became fragmented. And so what Assyriologists and Sumerologists have had to do is to take all those fragments, which some of which were in one museum perhaps in Baghdad or up in Istanbul or in Berlin or in the Louvre or in the British Museum in London. These fragments were taken and inadvertently, in some cases, portions of a story would be taken to one museum and another portion of it to another. And only in the last 50 years or so, basically due to the work of Noah Kramer and some of his colleagues, they have been taking photographs or copies of all of these and then putting it together and they have came together, brought together a rather complete picture — far more complete than in the past.

   Now, the reason I mentioned this is because of Jonah. In Ancient Sumer, a religious system was developed. This religious system seems to have been mirrored in Babylon and in Assyria. That religious system is or was a system which was designed to explain the history of man. It's very convoluted. It's unbelievable. Even scholars who believe a portion of that material and are inclined to discount the scriptures — they all say that the scriptures in comparison or contrast to the ancient tablets of Sumer and Babylon, they read like a very logical and simple story, a believable story compared to those others.

   However, it is important for us and for this story to understand that what we are — what we see when we look at the Ancient Sumerian Babylonian Assyrian records is a counterfeit of the truth. And because of different individuals interpreting that counterfeit and different individual cultures trying to interpret the counterfeit, we have divergence of names of the same person or the same individual and we have differences — different slant or different point of view about those events.

   Now again, Jesus said, "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign." Again, he said this in Matthew 16:4. Now there is a principle in scripture that Christ seems to have followed as a habit if you please, or as a custom. And that is, he understood the principle "in the mouth of two or more witnesses a matter is established." And so Jesus again and again, in different places, made the same statement and that statement is reported by all of the disciples, perhaps with the exception of John — all of the gospel accounts record this having been said. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all three record this at different times. And I think that is significant.

   Now, one commentary points out that what Jesus is saying here has to do with both spiritual and literal fulfillment or a spiritual sense and a literal sense. For example, one commentary says not only in a spiritual sense - but, that is, Israel or the Jews had were a wicked and adulterous generation — not only in a spiritual sense but degenerated from the faith, religion and piety of their ancestors. And literally, they appeared not only to be living polygamous lives, but they had frequent divorces on trivial occasions or for just any reason, as I think one translation puts it, but by criminal conduct with other women. And this with the Jews themselves is a character of the generation in which the Messiah comes. This has been one of their own — some of their own rabbis and prophets had said, "When the Messiah comes, these conditions will prevail; this is the way it will be."

   Let's go to John chapter eight and verse one (John 8:1). In John chapter eight and verse one, Jesus went into the Mount of Olives. And early in the morning, he came again into the temple and all the people came unto him and he sat down and taught them.

   So Christ is having — they were having just a lecture session if you please a teaching experience a teaching session here. And the scribes and Pharisees came hustling up — picture this. They brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, "Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act." I wonder with which one of them — how do they know she was taken in the very act? And where was the other partner in this event? They neglected to bring him.

   Now, they knew no shame and they had no compunction about bringing this woman for judgment before Christ and in their self-righteousness. They said, "Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do you say?" This they said tempting him, that they might have occasion to accuse him. You see, if he said, "Well, Moses is right, she should be stoned immediately," he would have been pronouncing sentence of death on this woman. They would have put her to death, pointed the finger at Jesus and he would have been subject to prosecution as a murderer and they would have willingly testified against him: "We only did it because this teacher instructed us to do so."

   If he said, "Well, no, we can't do that," then they would have had occasion to accuse him of not supporting Moses. So there was no winning, was there, in responding to this? What did he do? He stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not. And I take it initially that they didn't see what he was writing, but they continued asking him. He lifted himself up and said unto them, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." And he stooped down and wrote on the ground again.

   And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst.

   Now some conjecture that Jesus was writing on the ground some specific times and places and names. And I wouldn't be surprised if he did. I suspect that's what he did — that he was writing their sins on the ground. And when they perceived that he knew their sins, then they hustled out of there as quickly as they could do so, starting from the eldest right on down to the youngest.

   One commentary says that apparently the older had a little bit more wisdom and perhaps saw where he was going and what was happening a little sooner than the younger, and they started out first. Maybe true.

   Rabbinical tradition says that "just when the Messiah comes, or in the age the son of David comes, impudence shall be increased. Corn and wine shall be dear. The government shall be heretics and the synagogue shall become a brothel house." That was one of their own prophets or some of their own rabbis historically in pointing to the conditions in the days of the coming of Messiah.

   Now, their meaning is, according to the commentary, that the chief magistrate should be Sadducees as opposed to themselves being Pharisees and those that pretended to religion and holiness would be adulterers, which was actually the case in this Christ. Their writings frequently speak of the increase and abounding of adulteries under the second temple. And about this time, which obliged Yohanan Ben Zakai and the Sanhedrin to leave off the use of the Bitter Waters in their services because, as you know, the bitter — this was a test to determine guilt and innocence and everybody was so guilty that they just discontinued it, probably so.

   But Jesus said, "There shall no sign be given to this generation but the sign of the prophet Jonas." Not that no miracles should afterward be wrought amongst them — he had already performed many miracles, he had also performed many miracles after having made the statement. So Christ is pointing toward a sign.

   Now, the sign was that it would be as that it would be the sign of the prophet Jonas, that as Jonas was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish. Now, one commentary says that in effect, Jonas was as good as dead and I guess that's true in the belly of a fish. He was either dead or as good as dead. I have never figured out how naturally speaking, he could have failed to be digested in three days under normal circumstances. However, he was not. So therefore, a miracle occurred, indeed, it did occur.

   Of course, this is presuming that the account is valid. Now then, was the account valid? Well, the critics say, of course, it's a myth and the critics of course claim that on a number of bases that the whole story is one that was cooked up. But let's think about this — you know, Jesus quotes the story. Now, if he was the Son of God and if we accept him as our Savior, and if indeed he had the knowledge that he said he had and we accept that he had, if indeed he was the Son of God, then the story is quoted as fact.

   Some say, "Well, no, he didn't quote it as fact." However, Bullinger makes, I think, a very interesting point when he says the fact is that he cites the Queen of Sheba as another example of ones who will condemn this generation and nobody questions or doubts the Queen of Sheba's existence. Therefore, if she is real, if she was a real person, historical person, then how can one say that Jesus was quoting a myth as if it were a myth just to teach a lesson in this matter of Jonah?

   I think there's another reason why the story of Jonah is pointed toward and why it was, first of all, why it occurred; secondly, why it's used by Christ as the sign of his Messiah.

   In the story, and I'm not going to bore you with reading a lot of this, because it's heavy and it's, some of it is rather gross, but in the story of the ancient Sumerian religion, there is a goddess of different names depending upon which culture you're looking at or reading from. There was a goddess whose common name is Ishtar or Istarte or Astarte, and she was the primary goddess in all these areas. Now, this goddess was queen of heaven and as queen of heaven, she was married to one who is named Enkidu. Now, "En" means heaven in Ancient Sumerian, "ki" means earth, and "du" means adjoining of the two or of or it's like the connecting part or the part that shows the attribute or from or whatever. Depending on the contect. Ok?

   So Enkidu was the one who was joined by the God of heaven and earth. He was the son of the God of heaven and earth, or he was the God of heaven and earth. It all kind of depends upon which part of the story because these people were very creative. They could make this fit and work anyway.

   A matter of fact, Kramer makes an observation and he says, it's amazing how, why these people never tried to never really sat down and tried to figure out just how all of these contradictory attributes and stories could, could have any validity how their gods were so contradictory, the god of life was god of death. The god of heaven and earth was a, violent individual, and so on.

   Enkidu had another name in the northern area of Assyria. The name is Tammuz or Tammuz, most of us call it. Now, Tammuz or Enkidu was the lord. In the Phoenician Western area was called Baal or Baalat. He was also, his symbol was the symbol of the fish for some reason. And his priests had a miter, they wore a miter and a suit so times which made them look like the head of the fish, and then their body, and the tail of the suit would flare out like the tail of a fish.

   And so God used a fish and a prophet swallowed by that fish to go to these people who worshiped a god who either had or was by their priest assumed the attribute of the fish. Because you know what? They believed that prophet and they repented because they recognized immediately what he told them was true — because of their sins, they were going to be wiped out.

   Now, Ishtar — this wife of this Tammuz, the queen of heaven, the lady — all kinds of names. Let me read you from the Encyclopedia Britannica what they have to say concerning Easter traditions, from the Encyclopedia Britannica:

   The festival of Easter occurs on a particular Sunday, they don't want to explain how to compute it. Ever read in the Encyclopedia Britannica how Easter is figured? You ought to read it. It makes figuring the Hebrew calendar, a piece of cake trying to figure out that this, that calendar I it, it makes the Hebrew calendar and figuring Passover a joy, especially if you go back to the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which is more complete on the matter. But, continuing the festival Easter it's importance is emphasized in the worship of the church by the long preparation of Lent, by Holy Week with its solemn services, and by the following 50 days until Pentecost, a period known as Easter Tide or Pasture Tide.

   Now listen, Easter is central to the whole Christian year. Not only does the entire ecclesiastical calendar of movable feasts depend upon its date, but the whole liturgical year of worship is arranged around it. In the liturgical texts, the emphasis is laid on it being the Christian Passover, which it isn't.

   It's amazing, the contradictions in the Ancient Babylonian Sumerian religion about Tammuz, Ishtar, whatever their names may be. The confusion and conflict in that story is mirrored by the confusion and conflict in the Easter traditions of the church. Because it is not the Christian Passover. But they present it as Paschal Tide or the Passover, they point to the Passover but then they always point toward "Easter commemorates his resurrection that's the day He rose." Ok? Confusion, they are confused. They get it mixed up.

   Now, then it's understandable because the source is all mixed up and confusing. Continuing on, in this must be seen the origin of the Easter vigil service — one of the striking celebrations of Easter in both East and West. From being a weekly observance, the vigil has turned into an annual one at Easter only.

   This vigil consists of the blessing of the new fire. Let's see, which scripture can they point to, to point to Jesus blessing the new fire, the disciples, the apostles blessing the new fire? What does fire have to do with Christ? There is no such reference, but there is a lot of reference to it in the pagan religions, in the pagan traditions.

   A practice introduced during the middle ages — oh, really? The fire introduction didn't come until the early middle ages, probably about 1000 to 1100 A.D. The lighting of the paschal candle, a service of lessons called the prophecies followed by the blessings, blessing of the font and baptisms. And then the mass of Easter. A similar form is used in Lutheran and some Anglican churches.

   And then he has more to say about Protestant practices and how the vigil in the West, but never in the East, came to be celebrated on Saturday evening, then on Saturday afternoon, and finally by the end of the middle ages on Saturday morning. The vigil and all the reading of the texts and so on was moved back to Saturday.

   In 1951 optionally, and in 1955 obligatorily throughout the Roman Catholic church, the Easter vigil was restored to the starting time of about 10 PM Saturday evening, so that the first mass of Easter begins at midnight. Easter vigils in certain Protestant churches are similarly scheduled.

   So, all of this had gotten out of kilter because it didn't quite fit to the old ancient mythological practices, the religious practices of Ancient Babylon. So they had to institute some revision and restoration.

   Among the Eastern Orthodox and Russian Orthodox churches, perhaps even greater emphasis is laid on the central position of Easter, not only as an annual observance of the church here, but as a centerpiece in the whole worship and spiritual life of the church. Then they describe a procession outside of the church.

   Now, processions were and a vital, integral part of the ancient Babylonian religious services, particularly the one worshiping Isis and Tammuz in the spring of the year. I won't bore you with reading the account, but it's in there. When the procession first leaves the church, there are no lights anywhere — total darkness. But on its return, hundreds of candles and colored lamps are lighted to show the splendor of Christ's resurrection. They go out looking for Christ, and "Oh, where is he? Where is he?" And they go through this ceremony searching for Christ. They can't find him, then they light lights and they can find him.

   Many Protestant churches hold joint interdenominational Good Friday services. He describes all this conducted from about 12 noon to 3 PM with choirs and clergy of the participating denominations joining together. This interdenominational pattern culminates in the Easter dawn service, which is of such interest in the United States that it commands wide television and radio coverage.

   The origin of the sunrise service is not known — ah, we could inform them, couldn't we? But it would appear to be rooted in the gospel narrative describing the resurrection of Christ, that is in John 20: "Now, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark" — still dark sunrise. Well, he was gone. Amazing.

   Mingled with this biblical warrant is an association with the spring of the year, what I'm quoting Encyclopedia Britannica again — the latest edition just off the presses. Mingled with this biblical warrant is an association with the spring of the year and the idea of the new birth symbolized in nature's renewal, all of itself out of the death of winter, which is the ancient Babylonian mythological cultic worship and all that it would pertain to.

   Now, the Sumerian name for Ishtar was Inanna. Inanna, a goddess of war, sexual love — again, this is from the Encyclopedia Britannica. Ishtar is the Akkadian counterpart of the West Semitic goddess Astarte. Inanna, an important goddess in the Sumerian pantheon, came to be identified with Ishtar. We don't know how this all came about he said. Actually, it began in Sumer, according to what Kramer has concluded based upon the tablets, it began in Sumer, then it was in Babylon, and then it was up in Assyria. And there may be some reasons for that, but I won't go into it.

   In the figure of Inanna, several traditions seem to have been combined. She is sometimes the daughter of the Sky God and sometimes his wife and never could get it sorted out. In other myths, she is the daughter of Nanna, God of the moon, or of the wind En-lil. In her earliest manifestations, she was associated with the storehouse and thus personified as the goddess of dates, wood, meat and grain. The storehouse gates were her emblem.

   By the way, from this we get — guess what? The cornucopia, the horn of plenty. It is a modern day symbol representing fecundity or the blessing, the fruit of the field, the fruit of the land and it points back to ancient Ishtar or Easter or Inanna or whatever you want to call her.

   She was also the goddess of rain and thunderstorms, leading to her association with An and the sky God or Een. It can be — it depends again, sometimes this is all interchangeable — Enkidu or An and Ki, heaven and earth. The sky God An was often pictured with the lion whose roar resembled thunder.

   She was characterized as young, beautiful and impulsive — never as helpmate or mother, young headstrong and beautiful and impulsive, never as an helpmate or mother. She is sometimes referred to as "the Lady of the date clusters."

   Ishtar's primary legacy from the Sumerian tradition is the role of fertility figure, a goddess of contradictory connotations and forces associated with the planet Venus and with Shamash, the Sun god, and Sin the moon god. She forms a secondary astral triad in this manifestation. Her symbol is a star with 6, 8 or 16 rays within a circle.

   As goddess of Venus delighting bodily love, Ishtar was the protectress of prostitutes and the patroness of the alehouses. I wonder why? Part of her cult worship probably included temple prostitution and her cult center, Uruk — I think Uruk is another name for also there's another name for that but I'm not sure that won't come to me — was a city filled with courtesans and harlots. In later myth, she was known as queen of the universe, taking on the powers of the God of heaven in Leo and Enki of the God of heaven and earth.

   Now let's go to Jeremiah chapter 7. And let's see what the scripture has to say about this business of the queen of heaven. Because again, Jesus used — first of all, Jesus — God made a plan and Satan was aware of that plan. That plan was actually communicated to some of God's servants about a Messiah who would come and about how his coming would be.

   It was all as when Jesus gave the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees the sign that he would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish. God laid it out there. So Satan counterfeited by his very clever means. He counterfeited what was going to be and his counterfeit, of course, became more and more gross and more and more licentious because dealing with carnal minds.

   Jeremiah chapter 7, let's start in verse 17 (Jeremiah 7:17): "Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? I understand Jeremiah prophesized just before and during the time of the Babylonian incursion and ultimately their destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the captivity of Judah."

   Ok, so he is after Jonah roughly, not quit a 100 years — and he said the city of Judah, "Do you see what they do? The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire and the women knead their dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods that they may provoke me to anger."

   Now, let me tell you something down through the history of Israel from the time they went into the land until the time they were totally taken out of the land in 585 B.C. — down through that history, they never got away from the paganism of the nations around them. And whatever was the fashionable religion of the time, they were influenced, infected, corrupted by the other religions. And this very clearly shows that they had been greatly corrupted by the Babylonian religion, the Sumerian Babylonian religion, the very one we've been reading about — Ishtar or Inanna or whatever you want to call her, the queen of heaven.

   "Do they provoke me to anger?" sayeth the Eternal. "Do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?" A very appropriate judgment and evaluation. The confusion of this religion — the fact that it made no sense whatsoever. It was a corrupt religious practice or practices, made no sense when they had the reality, when they had the truth. For them to go after this pagan religious concept from Babylon and from Sumer made no sense whatsoever.

   Verse 20: "Therefore, thus sayeth the Eternal God, behold mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man and upon beast, upon the trees of the field and upon the fruit of the ground, and it shall burn and shall not be quenched."

   "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices and eat flesh. For I spake not unto your fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of Egypt concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices." Now, he's been talking about the business with the queen of heaven and the practices they were involved in.

   Now, we have always said, well, that's true — he didn't command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices when they came out. They only had one sacrifice, that was the Passover on Passover Night until the institution of the Levitical system one year later when the Tabernacle was set up. And from that time on then the Levitical priesthood — the Aaronic priesthood I should say — was established. You know the story, you can go back to Exodus, particularly chapter 29 and then following, and you can see how it developed, how God developed that system.

   But really what he's talking about here, I believe, is the burnt offerings and sacrifices which pertain to this pagan system, this Babylon system that he is dealing with — with the queen of heaven.

   "But this thing I commanded them saying, obey my voice and I will be your God and you shall be my people and walk you in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you."

   Verse 25: "Since the days that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets daily rising up early and sending them. Yet they hearkened not unto me nor inclined their ear but hardened their neck. They did worse than their fathers."

   "So you tell them all these words, verse 27, but they will not listen to you. You shall also call unto them, but they will not answer you. But you shall say unto them, 'This is a nation that obeys not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receives correction. Truth is perished and is cut off from their mouth. They've done evil in my sight and they have polluted my name.'" And on and on and on it goes.

   Jeremiah chapter 44 verse 17: Much later in Jeremiah's experience and his prophecy to Judah, Jeremiah chapter 44, picking up in about verse 15 to get the thought (Jeremiah 44:15-17):

   "Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt and Pathros answered Jeremiah saying, 'As for the word that you have spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto you.'" Ok.

   "But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goes forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto her as we have done — we and our fathers, our kings and our princes in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem."

   Now, maybe they were painting a totally biased picture here in saying that not only their fathers but their kings and all of their leaders had had always done this. In effect, this is what they're saying: "We are not going to listen to you, we are not going to do what you say because we're going to continue as we have always done." And how was that? What was that they had always done? They had worshiped queen of heaven. They had worshiped according to the Babylonian tradition, the Babylonian cult.

   "For then had we plenty of victuals and were well and saw no evil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven (verse 18) and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine."

   So it's all God's fault — that God, that Yahweh, that God of yours, Jeremiah's, it's His fault. If we had only just continued in our pagan religion, all would have gone well with us.

   "And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her and pour out drink offerings unto her without our men?" Wow, the women are speaking here, the women are leaders here. The women were running the show, I take it, I have to conclude that's what he's saying.

   Verse 25: "Thus saith the Lord of hosts," Jeremiah says, "the God of Israel saying, you and your wives have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands saying we will surely perform our vows that we have vowed to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto her. You will surely accomplish your vows and surely perform your vows."

   "Okay," like you said, "it shall be done. Therefore hear you the word of the Lord, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt. Behold, I have sworn by my great name," saith the Lord, "that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying the Lord God lives. Behold, I will watch over them for evil and not for good."

   "And all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt" — the ones who had fled down into Egypt to avoid the captivity under the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar — follow the actually the re-invasion it should be — "Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and famine until there be an end of them. Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah and all the remnant of Judah that are gone in the land of Egypt to sojourn there shall know whose words shall stand — mine or theirs."

   God said, "And this shall be a sign unto you," saith the Lord, "that I will punish you in this place that you may know that my word shall surely stand against you for evil." And so it happened that they were persecuted in Egypt. The history is very clear.

   The prophet Ezekiel — Ezekiel chapter 8 pictures a ceremony that was ongoing in his day. And that ceremony, that custom is perhaps parallel to what Jeremiah saw, Jeremiah experienced. I will drop down to verse 13 to avoid, for the sake of time to avoid — you can read it yourself starting in verse one. But let's pick up the story in verse 13 (Ezekiel 8:13).

   He said unto me, "Turn you yet again and you shall see greater abominations that they do." Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north. And behold there sat women weeping for Tammuz.

   Then said he unto me, "Hast thou seen this O son of man? Turn yet again and you shall see greater abominations than these." And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house and behold at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar were about 25 men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east and they worshiped the sun toward the east.

   And then he said to me, "Have you seen this O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence and have returned to provoke me to anger and lo, they put the branch to their nose."

   There's an interesting commentary on this having to do with the branch. And it does go back to an ancient custom and practice. You remember in the book of Job — Job in explaining his righteousness, what he has not done, what he has done, I think it's in Job 29, I'm not sure — he makes a comment about, "I have not when I saw this sun, when I saw the moon, I have not kissed the hand."

   That was an ancient pagan custom showing their reverence for the Sun god or the Moon god, the Babylonian deities — Nimrod or Tammuz and Ishtar or Inanna or whatever her name may have been at that particular time as she was known. And Job was familiar with that worship, that religious practice. But they were having their back to God, turning their backs on him and they were worshiping and they were putting the branch to the nose.

   This was either hyssop — I'm sorry, not hyssop. It was either laurel or a grapevine or something of that sort, apparently, which was a, the idea was the same as kissing the hand. In some religions, there's a great deal of significance in the way the hand is used for blessing. I mean, all of that symbolism is significant and what they do.

   Tammuz was the Akkadian deity in the Mesopotamian religion. He was the god of fertility, embodying the powers for new life and nature in the spring. He was known as the flawless young. The earliest known mention of Tammuz is in texts dating to the earliest part of the early dynastic three period — that is perhaps around 2400 B.C., 2323 to 2500 B.C. But according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, his cult was probably much older, even going back before the flood.

   The celebrations in March and April or through April that marked his death — the death of the god also seemed to have been dramatically performed. Many of the laments for the occasion have as a setting a procession out into the desert to the fold of the slain god that he was a shepherd. So they would go out into the pastures because he was pictured as a shepherd god.

   Now again, why did Jesus use the sign of Jonah? And why then again, did the event happen with Jonah? You know, this is a very strange setup — that story of Jonah makes no sense whatsoever. Why was he at sea? He was running away. Obviously, Jonah did not want the enemies of Israel to repent. That's very clear.

   God wanted to set up an event which would be the sign which could be used hundreds of years later, and it would be something which would affect, if you please — it would impact the worship of the Babylonian mystery religion which was being worshiped by his people, Israel and Judah, because they were worshiping that system.

   Jonah went to Nineveh. Jonah preached to Nineveh. The three days and three nights in the belly of the fish occurred. And then it came to be used later when Jesus Christ died. It was used as the sign that Almighty God, the Son of God was the true God contra their worship of the pagan God.

   Now then, let's go to Matthew chapter 27. And let's notice briefly the account of the crucifixion of Christ, the crucifixion and his resurrection. Matthew chapter 27. This whole chapter is very, very significant, but we ought to start with chapter 26 (Matthew 27:26). But we don't have time.

   "When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. And when they had bound him, they led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the governor. Then Judas which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself and brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying, 'I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood'" — a witness against them.

   And they said, "What's that to us?" They weren't concerned about innocency. "You see to that" — that's your problem, we would say in our vernacular. And he cast down the 30 pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went out and hanged himself.

   And they took the money and said, "It's not lawful to put this into the treasury." Notice how punctilious they are, how careful they are to abide by certain rules. "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury because it is the price of blood." And they took counsel and bought with them the Potter's field to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called the field of blood unto this day as a witness against them.

   Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet saying, "And they took the 30 pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value and gave them for the Potter's field as the Lord appointed me" — a prophecy.

   Now Jeremiah earlier, as we saw, had prophesized and preached against the Babylonian religion or cultic religion, the Tammuz-Ishtar goddess-god which they worshiped. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the prophet Jonah had been used to warn the people of Nineveh of their sin and they had repented for a short time. They were an exception — most people do not repent. All of this was set up to be a sign for what Jesus Christ would do personally and what God would do in Him in the matter of his resurrection.

   Now then notice, the Babylonian followers cannot get it right, it isn't possible. In the second century, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica and other sources, they began to try to assimilate some of the practices, and it started very, very slowly. About 117-128 A.D., they started trying to mix the Easter tradition of the Babylonians, which these people were quite familiar with, and they tried to meld that with the account and the death and resurrection of Christ.

   It was resisted by the believers and the true followers of Christ. And it precipitated or it is recorded in what is known as the Quartodeciman controversy. And it didn't go away. Satan kept working to infuse those Babylonian practices or assimilate them into the church. And it didn't all happen at once.

   But finally, by about the fourth century — that is the late 300s, starting about 380 — they really were on a roll. And from about 321 with Constantine's conversion so called, from that time on it really began to flow into the church. But they can never make it fit.

   When we read the account of the crucifixion and John's account — John chapters 18 and 19 — we can clearly see that there was the crucifixion. In the year of Christ's death was on a Wednesday. He died on a Wednesday. Passover was Tuesday night. He was arrested that night. And then on the next day, he was taken out and beaten and finally hanged about what — 9 AM I guess — and he was then finally died at about three in the afternoon and all that period of time, he was suffering on that cross or stake as it was.

   Again and again, we find in the account and John's account in particular that Christ was judged to be innocent. They all knew he was innocent. Let's start in verse 9 chapter 19 verse one (John 19:1):

   "Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers planted a crown of thorns and put it on his head and they put on him a purple robe and said, 'Hail King of the Jews' and they smote him with their hands. And Pilate therefore went forth again and said unto them, 'Behold, I bring him forth to you that you may know that I find no fault in him.'"

   Then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said unto them, "Behold the man." When the chief priests and their officers saw him, they cried out saying, "Crucify him, crucify him." Pilate said unto them, "Take you him and crucify him for I find no fault in him."

   And then the Jews answered, "We have a law and by our law he ought to die because he made himself the son of God" — blasphemy. And when Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid and he went into the judgment hall and said unto Jesus, "Whence art thou?" But Jesus gave him no answer.

   And Pilate said unto him, "Do you not answer me knowing that I have the power to crucify you and the power to release you?" And Jesus said, "You couldn't do anything at all against me except through the power given to you from above. Therefore, he delivered me unto you has a greater sin."

   And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him. But the Jews cried out saying, "If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whosoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar" — boy that he could not handle, he couldn't deal with that because if word got back to Caesar that Pilate was not his friend, and these guys would do it and he knew it, then he had a lot to answer for.

   And when Pilate heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement, but in Hebrew Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the Passover — verse 14 — about the sixth hour, preparation of the Passover — the Jews' Passover? Yes, of course.

   And he said unto the Jews, "Behold your king." But they cried out, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him." Pilate said unto them, "Shall I crucify your king?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." In other instances, what did they say? I mean, contradict themselves again and again — they said "We are not in bondage. We owe allegiance to no man but to God." They boasted to Christ. Now they boast that they have no king but Caesar. These people have no conscience.

   So they led Jesus away and he bearing his cross went forth into a place called Golgotha where they crucified him with two others with him, one on either side, and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross as you know that — King of the Jews. They objected to that. They said, "We don't like that. What you should say is 'he says he is the king of the Jews'" and Pilate answered "What I have written, I have written." All of a sudden, he got a little bit of a spine here. Amazing. I mean, he didn't have any spine earlier, but now he did.

   Then the soldiers when they had crucified Jesus took his garments and you know, that was all prophesied. Fulfill that. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleopas and Mary Magdalene — three Mary's standing there.

   And when Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he said unto her, "Woman, behold your son." Then said he to the disciple, "Behold your mother." And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own house.

   After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said "I thirst." And they gave him this wine and vinegar — and some say they tried to give him something that had a drug which would numb the pain somewhat. And I don't think that's true, but it may have been, I don't know.

   And when he had received the vinegar, he said "It is finished." So he condenses quite a bit of time into these few verses here. And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the body should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day (for that Sabbath day was a high day) — John's account is the one which clearly defines the timing in the Passover week because there was a high day coming, a high day coming up.

   And that high day, that Sabbath — this was the preparation for that high day. Following that high day, then was another preparation for the weekly Sabbath. The only way this could occur was if the Passover was in a year when — I'm sorry — if the crucifixion was in a year when the Passover was on Tuesday evening. And this crucifixion event occurred on a Wednesday. The only way — the high day was Thursday. And then they prepared the spices to anoint his or embalm him as it were, anoint his body on Friday. And they came and they ran out of time. They had to wait and then Sunday morning while it was still dark, they came and he wasn't there. Amazing.

   And the sign that he gave was a sign which confounded those who were of the same spirit and the same attitude as their fathers who worshiped the king Tammuz and the queen of heaven, Ishtar. Now, they obviously would not admit to that and they wouldn't accept that, but they were in the spirit and the attitude of their forefathers.

   Satan inspired a perversion of the truths which are known from the beginning of time — that one should come to save mankind according to a promise which God gave Eve in the very beginning. And Satan very subtly melded the error into that original truth.

   The truth of a savior who would come and die as a sacrifice and then rise again — he brought in, of course, a great deal of distortion of that truth. And then when Jesus gave them the signs of how it would be, that is, he would be three days and three nights in the earth just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of that fish as a witness against those who were at that time in the very heart of that Babylonian worship system.

   Now then in the later Jerusalem, which was in effect spiritual Babylon at that time, Jesus gave them the same kind of sign — sign of Jonah. Satan insinuated his false pagan cultic practices into the church beginning as I said earlier in the second century. And then he slowly brought more and more, infused more of the significant practices from Babylon into a bankrupt church, which was no longer the true church of God.

   And to this day, that bankrupt Babylon system to this day is celebrated, worshiped, perpetuated in modern times, modern tradition and people think they do worship God. God has been very good to us. You know, many years ago, Dr. C. Paul Meredith did a study for his master's degree on Satan's Great Deception.

   About the time he completed that, he and I made a trip across country. We went to Big Sandy for the feast in those days. The feast was — you really had your choice of where to go. It was either Big Sandy or Big Sandy or Big Sandy or Big Sandy or Big Sandy. Today, we have five here in the lower 48 and three in Canada and one in Alaska is nine choices and people are complaining. People in the church — "Oh, it's just too far." All of Canada and the United States went to Big Sandy until about 1961 when we finally had a second site at Squaw Valley — or was it 1960? Must be 1960-61. My wife says '61. I never went there. I went to Big Sandy started in 1954 and been going wherever I was told ever since.

   But on that trip, Dr. C. Paul Meredith and I talked a great deal. And he talked about his work on that study — the book while he was studying that. He had a number of very unusual events occur and serious threats to his life. He always attributed that to his conclusion. His conclusion was that Satan didn't want that published.

   Now there were available a number of books in that time and still today, Hislop's "The Two Babylon's", Fraser's "The Golden Bough", and other books that explain about the ancient Babylonian religion and show the parallels between Christianity so-called today and the ancient pagan religions. I think Dr. C. Paul Meredith did a real service in distilling that into more shall we say a more readable and usable form.

   If you have never read it I would encourage you to get a copy and read it, read it once. I think it's very helpful because it really puts into perspective what Satan has done and continues to do in blinding the eyes of humanity to the truth, the plan of God and how it has been carried out thus far and how it will be carried out in the future. Satan is the great deceiver and the way he deceives and the reason he can deceive is because he takes the truth and he uses that truth as his basis to work from. And he finds very willing agents, individuals who will, who will go along with drinking in of, of his doctrine and infusing that into the church until he has blinded the eyes and the minds of a significant number of people.

   This has happened in the Church of God over and over and over again. But Jesus Christ, it has uh has very plainly and very clearly fulfilled his part of the his commission and his part. And he is continuing to do so. And the one thing that he has said, which is so encouraging to me. And I think all of us is that he has said that he will never leave us, he will never forsake us and that his church will never, never die out. And apart from his intervention and his, the strength of the Holy Spirit that we have, it would die out. We would be quenched, we would be overwhelmed. But because of the understanding and because of the spirit of understanding that he has given us, we don't, we, we aren't deceived by these counterfeits which Satan constantly develops and uses to deceive humanity. We can be very, very thankful that Jesus Christ fulfilled the signs which he gave and which he promised.